Applied music kinesiology in Switzerland
For 30 years, Marianne and Wenzel Grund have been passing on their extensive knowledge to professional music makers in counseling, therapy and training. The "Applied Music Kinesiology" training course has been redesigned. Some background information and practical examples.
Music is an ancient way of training people's ability to resonate. Even in early times in Tibet, Egypt and Ancient Greece, music was used for healing. Sounds have a direct effect on the entire organism via the ear (and its nerve connections to the brain). Every human being can naturally distinguish between harmonious and disharmonious sounds. This need for harmony is also anchored in the psyche.
Holistic healthcare system
Applied music kinesiology recognizes stress patterns on a physical, emotional and mental level. It knows how to use the organizing structural elements of music (rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, etc.) to bring one's own personality into harmony and balance health on all levels. With the right vibration (sound waves), the brain is programmed for healing, so to speak.
Formative experiences and emotions that we have not processed properly are stored by our body at cellular level for the long term. As a result, we carry unconscious blockages and conflicts around with us that inhibit our natural flow of energy, dampen our zest for life and can make us ill in the long term. As we literally "embody" these inner conflicts, we can get to the original problem through the expression of our body. The basic assumption of applied kinesiology is that we can read the information stored in the body using kinesiological muscle testing as a "biofeedback system". Learning effective self-activation and correction techniques also enables us to set the right individual impulses.
The dimensions of applied music kinesiology
1. Help with professional issues for musicians and stage artists
For example: establishing physical and mental disposition, stage fright, exam nerves, learning blocks in difficult passages, playing by heart, dealing with criticism, stress with colleagues, in orchestra, ensemble, school, etc. Blocks to creativity and inspiration, the relationship to one's own instrument, intonation problems, preparation for competitions, stress about certain keys, intervals and musical works, unfavorable movement patterns, muscle tension, and even self-presentation, market value and self-management.
2. impulses for professional music lessons
This section is aimed at music teachers at school, music school or university. It is about appreciating your own work and should help to overcome the frustrations that are undoubtedly associated with individual and group music lessons today.
Music educators bear responsibility, whether consciously or unconsciously, for the continued existence of our musical culture. They try to maintain and preserve ideals, values and established musical traditions and to convey their appreciation to pupils and students. This attempt is often laborious and sometimes leads to resignation.
Here, the impulses from applied music kinesiology with various integrative and creative exercises may serve to promote the motivation of the teacher and the learner.
3. new profession in the forms of therapy that support healing
Here, the elements of music are used in conjunction with kinesiology in the therapeutic field (active listening to music) and we deal with questions such as: Which instrument can have a healing effect, which triad, which piece of music from which era?
Classical music has not yet tapped into this area. However, the harmonizing and healing power of so-called "classical music" will be of great importance in the future. The harmonic laws of this music correspond to the universal laws of life in which we are all integrated. This is why applied music kinesiology follows natural healing paths and deals with the disease and healing principles of the miasms that take place during a holistic healing process.
One of the focal points here is type-appropriate breathing energetics, as it determines our rhythm of life. We control all our vital functions such as circulation, metabolism, motor skills, sensory perception and brain functions through our breath.
Nowadays, the right way of communicating determines the success or failure of our actions. We receive important impulses on how we can interact authentically and clearly with our environment by testing the individual learning and perception type according to the famous behavioral researcher Dawna Markova.
Further topics of applied music kinesiology are: Experiencing one's own life tone (with which themes do I repeatedly come into resonance?), using the healing power of music in a targeted way, time measurement and healing, sound and colors, recognizing and releasing unfavorable behavioral patterns, dealing with criticism, life harmony and tonalities as well as numerous holistically oriented tips for health promotion (organ-conflict healing), especially for chronic ailments.
4. a musical path to spirituality
Anyone who has ever been "enchanted" by music, who has forgotten themselves in the experience of music and has emerged deeply moved from this experience, has sensed one of the greatest secrets of music: it has the power to transport us into other dimensions of experience, to bring us to a higher level of vibration.
From the point of view of applied music kinesiology, the human being is more than just a biological machine that thinks and feels; the human being is first and foremost a spiritual being. Applied music kinesiology aims to reunite all levels of the human being - physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
In the field of "esoteric art" and in pop culture, such a connection - albeit often on a shallow level - can already be found. Classical musicians who deal with spirituality are often still alone today and are often regarded as strange by their colleagues. Applied Music Kinesiology would like to give an impulse to link classical music and spirituality. Many great composers were spiritually oriented and expressed themselves in this regard, and it is by no means the case that there is only an Eastern or East Asian tradition in this respect. This is important to emphasize, because many good ideas come from the East, which often makes us forget our own culture.
The American preventive physician and psychiatrist John Diamond writes in his book Life energy in music"From the very beginning, the function of music has been the spiritual edification of the listener, the strengthening of his vital energy. We all know that music has this power and yet we rarely think about it when we play music, when we go to a concert or when we buy a CD; or we have forgotten the very reason for the existence of music."
Practical case studies
1. Stage fright of a pianist
One client, the 44-year-old pianist K. from the former GDR, told me about the educational methods she had "enjoyed" at the school for musically gifted children. As a result of these measures, she "fell silent" between the ages of 8 and 12. There was no privacy and no trustworthy caregivers at the boarding school. She and all the children were judged solely on their performance and were sometimes mistreated. This led K. to feel more and more pleasure in torturing herself - while practicing and making music.
At the age of 12, she preferred to read adult novels about female slaves and identified with the characters. From puberty onwards, she suffered more and more from stage fright when auditioning. After emigrating to the West, K. did not play the piano for ten years. After this break, she started practicing again. She enjoyed music again. She also gave concerts again - if only it weren't for the stage fright!
During the first session, the preliminary tests (preparation of clear muscle functions) showed that she had a "left-brained" approach to things. That's why I first did a number of kinesiological integration exercises with her so that she could feel in her body what it means to be in the center. I gave her the homework to do these exercises before and after practicing.
We then tested terms from the behavior barometer on the subject of stage fright. An age regression with the levels 41 - 21 - 16 - 12 - 8 - 6 was added to the pair of terms "quiet - neglected". We carried out a stress release with the theme "quiet - neglected" at all age levels. This is how we concluded the first session.
At the second appointment, as K. was about to give a concert, a so-called "appointment balance" was carried out with twelve muscles. The client was thinking about her concert while I tested the muscles assigned to the meridians. This revealed a spleen-pancreas and circulation-sexus over-energy as well as a bladder and large intestine under-energy. As the bladder meridian indicated low energy as the cause, we first activated the associated neurolymphatic and neurovascular zones. This was followed by emotional stress reduction (ESA) with the correspondences associated with the bladder meridian, such as peace, moaning, water element, which we linked to the concert.
K. began to feel comfortable with the idea of making music on stage again and consciously communicating with the audience through music (water element).
A few days after her concert, she talked about her performance, beaming with joy. She had felt good and had received congratulatory cards from concert guests for the first time in her life. One important realization was that you shouldn't judge your past, no matter what it looked like. Life is happening now. Not in the past, not in the future. The colleague showed me how important it is to integrate your past into your present life in order to be able to move freely again. Years later, I received the following feedback from K.: "Thank you so much for the all-encompassing work on my soul and body. There are no words that can come close to expressing my enthusiasm and gratitude."
2. if teeth could tell ...
At the beginning of the year, client B. contacted me to ask if I could help him with his toothache. He is a very committed director of an educational institute. I learned that he had severe toothache not only when he ate (apples and other fruit) but also when he inhaled strongly. This was also becoming increasingly disruptive when he played the oboe. He had already been to all kinds of dentists and specialists, without the slightest success. In the preliminary interview, he mentioned that he was often overwhelmed by his work, especially during tough negotiations with authorities and representatives from politics and business. He finds it difficult to switch off in the evenings.
As a holistic therapist, I see teeth as more than just chewing tools. The oral cavity and teeth reveal the state of the entire human system to everyone - if you can decipher the "language of the teeth". Dental histories reveal a process to us and not acute events, but systemic conditions, long-term stress states, etc. According to Christian Kobau, they always make themselves known when our foundations are shaken. (Christian Kobau has unfortunately passed away in the meantime, he was a specialist in dentistry and oral medicine as well as a practicing physician in Klagenfurt, Austria, and presented extensive holistic observations in the field of dentistry).
I decided to start by recognizing B.'s stress pattern using the muscle test. The client chose the affirmation: "When I work independently, I am relaxed, focused and determined."
The first treatment phase is used to take stock of where stressors appear in the energy system by means of weak indicator muscles. I enter these weak indicators as a minus on the meridian wheel. The next step is to use the muscle test to find out which indicator is low energy and which is high energy. As in traditional Chinese medicine, the focus in kinesiology is also on treating low energy. During the first session, my client showed the following on the meridian wheel: Spleen, bladder, kidney - low energy; heart, liver - high energy.
The second phase of the test follows the kinesiological rule that the next sub-energy after an over-energy is the disturbance to be treated. Here I test for either a stress indication or a positive indication to see which healing impulses are suitable for the sub-energy (in this example the bladder) or for the stress pattern as a whole. In the bladder meridian, we have the water element with the stress factor anxiety. The water element as a whole in turn has to do with creativity, security/insecurity. In music, there are many works that are dedicated to this element, such as the Water music by Händel, the Moldova by Smetana or the Trout quintet from Schubert.
By correcting the indicated meridians by touching the neurolymphatic zones and neurovascular points and holding the start and end points of the meridians, we were able to stabilize the energy circulation. During this first corrective measure, the previously tested music was played - namely the Piano Trio in G minor op. 15 by Smetana. (Major keys are generally always directed outwards, minor keys always have to do with our inner world). So my client was already attuned to his theme. I then carried out an Emotional Stress Release (ESR) in which we responded to his affirmation and integrated it positively.
An ESR or ESA is a highly creative act on the part of the therapist to withdraw completely and at the same time to place the client in a light alpha state so that he can activate his images, colors and thus his world of symbols.
There are many energy points of our subtle existence on the head. Some of them have proven to be ideal for activating a stress field in the brain and releasing stress or a blockage. By touching the back of the head and the forehead, we switch off the limbic system (emotional center) in the brain, so to speak, so that we can look at a problem as it is, without the interference of emotional reactions.
Touching the back of the head triggers the memory of an image. Touching the forehead (frontal lobe) activates future-oriented thinking and action. The tester notices the activation of a stress field when the parts of the skull begin to vibrate. The head becomes hot and the client may start to sweat. The tester notices the release of the stress when the head becomes calm and cool. The more sensitively we work with our hands, the more clearly we perceive what is going on in our energy partner (= client). If we don't want to leave the constant flow of information that we send and receive to intuition, feeling and intuition, we have to entrust ourselves to the most important ability of the human brain, thinking in images.
By holding the frontal bones and occipital lobes, we draw energy into the part of the brain known as the zone for conscious associative thinking (ZBAD). This area of the brain enables us to find new ways of dealing with situations and, as mentioned, it works without emotion. The occipital lobes are important for the visual area, have to do with light and also work without emotion. We often touch our forehead when we are thinking, and this is often when a light comes on. Holding these two zones has a calming and centering effect. We can see situations in a new light by entering an alpha state. In this alpha state, it is easy to immerse ourselves in our inner world with our eyes closed and imagine inner images with corresponding sensory input.
The whole process of emotional stress release should happen gently, which is what happens in most cases. It is not necessary to relive all our traumas. We can create and change our images ourselves. We need to realize that everything the brain stores is nothing but energy that can express itself in images and perceptions.
About a month later, B. came for a second session. He told me that his symptoms had improved considerably and that he only felt pain in his back teeth. This time I tested the color-tone barometer. Orange indicated stress. In the ESR, B. thought of aggression on the subject of orange. We talked about this topic at his place of work. A large yucca palm in particular made him angry. He imagined removing this plant from the room, even though he had chosen this particular plant when setting up the room! After this "plant sacrifice", B. thought of a few more employees who put a strain on his nerves.
To relieve the stress of this topic, I decided to work with the interval barometer (shows the tension ratio between two individual tones). The sixth indicated (gift of inspiration, communicating feelings). As a symbol for the integration of the interval, the word "distance" was displayed. After B. had again recognized under ESR how he could communicate emotionally and the "distance" appeared as "vastness" in his mind's eye, we ended this balance. After a short time, B. contacted me and told me that he no longer had any toothache. He could eat and drink what he wanted.
Experience shows me and the client: If we are prepared to take responsibility for our own health and life, we also recognize the solution. It lies within ourselves. In this case, the specialists looked for solutions in the outside world. For example: remove all amalgam fillings, extract teeth, give painkillers, etc. However, the client found his solution by looking inside himself, for which I gave impulses but no ready-made instructions.
3. Group harmonization
Three young women came to my practice: a piano trio (piano, violin, cello). I met them at one of my stage fright seminars. During the seminar, it became clear that stage fright was not the trio's real issue, but rather occasional tensions during rehearsals. Otherwise, the three young ladies get on well together. Nevertheless, there were always disagreements, which had an impact on the concerts. I listened to a movement from Fauré's piano trio. I realized that the distribution of tasks within the small group was too imprecise. First of all, each musician had to realize what qualities she brings to the table.
The first step was to determine the breathing type of the musicians. A basic distinction is made between the solar or out-breath type and the lunar or in-breath type. The qualities of the solar type include: the giving principle, the guidance of the sound, for example short, powerful entries, the detail-oriented view and visual perception. The qualities of the lunar type are, for example: the receiving principle, the clairvoyance, the flexible, constant distribution of force and working method, the view of the whole.
In this piano trio, the pianist was lunar, the violinist solar and the cellist lunar. When observing their playing together, I noticed that the violinist was very shy in her entries. She listened more to the others, even when she had a leading part to play. The lunar cellist, on the other hand, often waited eagerly for signals from the violinist, but these came only hesitantly. So the cellist began to take over the leading role. The pianist intuitively perceived the imbalance in the group. She tried to mediate through her playing, but as a result, she was too little herself. She also complained of cold hands.
I made the violinist aware that she could take on her leadership role where possible. She tried it and burst into tears, as this is exactly what she is afraid of in everyday life. We carried out a short stress release (ESA) on the topic of "leadership qualities". She realized what strong energy she can convey through her eyes and her gaze. I encouraged the lunar cellist to adopt a lunar sitting posture (relaxed sacrum, head held high, remain flexible). She should simply absorb the signs coming from the violinist. I did a short centering exercise with the pianist, as she is also the center of the trio. Then each player drew a small picture of herself with precise instructions for her role. We pushed the pictures together on the floor to form a joint picture. I encouraged the three ladies to add to it as they wished with colored pencils until they liked the overall picture.
After this was all felt to be coherent, the trio played the piece of music again with the internalized, colourful image. It was unrecognizable. The faces of the musicians also expressed the beauty of the music they were playing.
New concept
The newly developed concept of Applied Music Kinesiology by Wenzel Grund is based on the original Music Kinesiology (MK), which was created in 1991 by Rosina Sonnenschmidt and Harald Knauss by musicians for musicians.
Since 1994, Wenzel Grund and his wife Marianne Grund have been running a counseling and therapy practice for musicians. Since 2003, Wenzel Grund has been continuing the work of the founders of MK as a certified MK instructor throughout the German-speaking world. He also trains music kinesiologists himself.
On this basis, he developed "Applied Music Kinesiology", building on his wealth of experience and insights from his daily practice, which aims to make the holistic effect of music on the human energy system tangible. At the same time, however, this practice-oriented method continues to focus on the stress-free, creative and successful handling of the musician's profession with all its facets.
More information on training and information evenings
More articles from Wenzel Grund:
Training as a Holistic Artist Coach
